Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe - Chapter 19 – Return to England

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. Recorded by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California,
Winter two thousand and six. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Chapter nineteen, Return to England. Having done all this, I
left them the next day and went on board the ship.
We prepared immediately to sail, but did not weigh that night.
The next morning, early two of the five men came

(00:54):
swimming to the ship side, and, making the most lamentable
complaint of the other three, begged to be taken into
the ship for God's sake, for they should be murdered,
and begged the captain to take them on board, though
he hanged them immediately. Upon this, the captain pretended to

(01:17):
have no power without me. But after some difficulty, and
after their solemn promises of amendment, they were taken on board,
and were some time after soundly whipped and pickled, after
which they proved very honest and quiet fellows. Some time

(01:42):
after this, the boat was ordered on shore, the tide
being up, and with the things promised to the men
to which the captain, at my intercession, caused their chests
and clothes to be added, which they took and were
very thankful for. I also encouraged them by telling them

(02:02):
that if it lay in my power to send any
vessel to take them in, I would not forget them.
When I took leave of this island, I carried on
board for relics the great goat skin cap I had
made my umbrella, and one of my parrots. Also I

(02:29):
forgot not to take the money I formerly mentioned, which
had lain by me so long useless that it was
grown rusty or tarnished, and could hardly pass for silver
till it had been a little rubbed and handled, as
also the money I found in the wreck of the
Spanish ship. And thus I left the island the nineteenth

(02:54):
of December, as I found by the ship's account in
the year of sixteen eighty six, after I had been
upon it eight and twenty years, two months and nineteen days,
being delivered from this second captivity the same day of

(03:16):
the month that I first made my escape in the
longboat from among the moors of Silly. In this vessel,
after a long voyage, I arrived in England the eleventh
of June in the year sixteen eighty seven, having been

(03:36):
thirty five years absent. When I came to England, I
was as perfect a stranger to all the world as
if I had never been known. There. My benefactor and
faithful Stewart, whom I had left my money in trust with,
was alive, but had had great misfortunes in the world,

(04:00):
was become a widow the second time, and very low
in the world. I made her very easy as to
what she owed me, assuring her I would give her
no trouble. But on the contrary, in gratitude for her
former care and faithfulness to me, I relieved her as

(04:22):
my little stock would afford, which at that time would
indeed allow me to do but little for her. But
I assured her I would never forget her former kindness
to me, nor did I forget her when I had
sufficient to help her, as shall be observed in its
proper place. I went down afterwards into Yorkshire, but my

(04:46):
father was dead, and my mother and all the family extinct,
except that I found two sisters and two of the
children of one my brothers, And as I had long
been given over for dead, there had been no provision

(05:07):
made for me, so that in a word, I found
nothing to relieve or assist me, and that the little
money I had would not do much for me as
to settling in the world. I met with one piece
of gratitude, indeed, which I did not expect, and this

(05:28):
was that the master of the ship, whom I had
so happily delivered and by the same means saved the
ship and cargo, having given a very handsome account to
the owners of the manner how I had saved the
lives of the men and the ship. They invited me
to meet them, and some other merchants concerned, and altogether

(05:53):
made me a very handsome compliment upon the subject, and
a present of almost two hundred hundred pounds sterling. But
after making several reflections upon the circumstances of my life
and how little way this would go towards settling me
in the world, I resolved to go to Lisbon and

(06:15):
see if I might not come at some information of
the state of my plantation in the Brazils, and of
what was become of my partner, who I had reason
to suppose had some years passed given me over for dead.
With this view, I took shipping for Lisbon, where I
arrived in April, following my man Friday, accompanying me very

(06:39):
honestly in all these ramblings and proving a most faithful
servant upon all occasions. When I came to Lisbon, I
found out by inquiry, and to my particular satisfaction, my
old friend, the captain of the ship who first took
me up at sea off the shore of Africa. He

(07:01):
was now grown old and had left off going to see,
having put his son, who was far from a young man,
into his ship, and who still used the Brazil trade.
The old man did not know me, and indeed I
hardly knew him, but I soon brought him to my remembrance,
and as soon brought myself to his remembrance when I

(07:25):
told him who I was. After some passionate expressions of
the old acquaintance between us, I inquired, you may be
sure after my plantation and my partner. The old man
told me he had not been in the Brazils for
about nine years, but that he could assure me that

(07:46):
when he came away, my partner was living. But the
trustees whom I had joined with him to take cognizance
of my part were both dead. That, however, he believed
I would have a very good account of the improvement
of the plantation, for that upon the general belief of

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being my castaway and drowned. My trustees had given the
account of the produce of my part of the plantation
to the Procurator fiscal, who had appropriated it in case
I never came to claim it, one third to the King,
and two thirds to the Monastery of Saint Augustine, to

(08:28):
be expended for the benefit of the poor and for
the conversion of the Indians to the Catholic faith. But
that if I appeared, or anyone for me to claim
the inheritance, it would be restored. Only that the improvement
or annual production being distributed to charitable uses could not

(08:50):
be restored. But he assured me that the steward of
the King's revenue from lands and the providore or steward
of the monastery had taken great care all along, that
the incumbent, that is to say, my partner, gave every
year a faithful account of the produce of which they

(09:11):
had duly received my moiity. I asked them if he
knew to what height of improvement he had brought the plantation,
and whether he thought it might be worth looking after,
or whether on my going thither I should meet with
any obstruction to my possessing my just right in the moiity.

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He told me he could not tell exactly to what
degree the plantation was improved, but this he knew that
my partner was grown exceedingly rich upon the enjoying his
part of it, and that, to the best of his remembrance,
he had heard that the King's third of my part,

(09:55):
which was it seems granted away to some other monastery
or religious house, amounted to above two hundred moidores a year.
That as to my being restored to a quiet possession
of it, there was no question to be made of that,
my partner being alive to witness my title, and my

(10:18):
name being also enrolled in the registry of the country. Also,
he told me that the survivors of my two trustees
were very fair, honest people, and very wealthy, and he
believed I would not only have their assistance for putting
me in possession, but would find a very considerable sum

(10:40):
of money in their hands, for my account being the
produce of the farm, while their fathers held the trust
and before it was given up as above, which as
he remembered, was for about twelve years. I showed myself
a little concerned and unease at this account, and inquired

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of the old Captain how it came to pass that
the trustees should thus dispose of my effects. When he
knew that I had made my will and had made
him the Portuguese Captain, my universal heir, et cetera. He
told me that was true, but that as there was

(11:24):
no proof of my being dead, he could not act
as executor until some certain account should come of my death.
And besides he was not willing to intermeddle with the
thing so remote. That it was true, he had registered
my will and put in his claim, and could he

(11:45):
have given any account of my being dead or alive,
he would have acted by procuration and taken possession of
the Inhenno, so they called the sugar House, and have
given his son, who was now at the Brazils, orders
to do it. But says the old man, I have

(12:05):
one piece of news to tell you, which perhaps may
not be so acceptable to you as the rest, and
that is believing you were lost, and all the world
believing so also your partner and trustees did offer to
account with me in your name for the first six

(12:26):
or eight years of profits which I received, there being
at that time great disbursements for increasing the works, building
an inheno, and buying slaves. It did not amount to
near so much as afterwards it produced. However, says the
old man, I shall give you a true account of
what I have received in all and how I have

(12:49):
disposed of it. After a few further days conference with
this ancient friend, he brought me an account of the
first six years income of my plantation, signed by my
partner and the merchant trustees, being always delivered in goods,
that is, tobacco and roll and sugar and chests besides rum, molasses,

(13:14):
et cetera, which is the consequence of sugar work. And
I found by this account that every year the income
considerably increased, but as above the disbursements being large, the
sum at first was small. However, the old man let

(13:34):
me see that he was a debtor to me four
hundred and seventy moy dories of gold, besides sixty chests
of sugar and fifteen double rolls of tobacco, which were
lost in his ship, he having been shipwrecked, coming home
to Lisbon about eleven years after my having the place.

(13:57):
The good man then began to complain of his misforfre fortunes,
and how he had been obliged to make use of
my money to cover his losses and buy him a
share and a new ship. However, my old friend says he,
you shall not want a supply in your necessity, and
as soon as my son returns, you shall be fully satisfied.

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Upon this, he pulls out an old pouch and gives
me one hundred and sixty Portugal moidores in gold, and
giving the writings of his title to the ship which
his son was gone to, the Brazil's inn of which
he was quarter part owner, and his son another, he

(14:42):
puts them both into my hands for security of the rest.
I was too much moved with the honesty and kindness
of the poor man to be able to bear this,
And remembering what he had done for me, how he
had taken me up at sea, and how generously he

(15:02):
had used me on all occasions, and particularly how sincere
a friend he was now to me, I could hardly
refrain from weeping at what he had said to me. Therefore,
I asked him if his circumstances admitted him to spare
so much money at that time, and if it would

(15:23):
not straighten him. He told me he could not say,
but it might straighten him a little. But however, it
was my money, and I might want it more than he.
Everything the good man said was full of affection, and
I could hardly refrain from tears while he spoke. In short,

(15:48):
I took one hundred of the mordores and called for
a pen and ink to give him a receipt for them.
Then I returned him the rest, and told him, if
ever I had possession of the plantation, I would return
the other to him as well as indeed I afterwards did,

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and that as to the bill of sale of his
part and his sonship, I would not take it by
any means, but that if I wanted the money, I
found he was honest enough to pay me. And if
I did not, but came to receive what he gave
me reason to expect I would never have a penny

(16:31):
more from him. When this was past, the old man
asked me if he should put me into a method
to make a claim to my plantation. I told him
I thought to go over to it myself. He said
I might do so if I pleased, but that if

(16:52):
I did not, there were ways enough to secure my
right and immediately to appropriate the profits to my use.
And as there were ships in the rever of Lisbon
just ready to go away to Brazil, he made me
enter my name in a public register with his affidavit

(17:14):
affirming upon oath that I was alive and that I
was the same person who took up the land for
the planting the said plantation at first, this being regularly
attested by a notary and a procuration affixed. He directed
me to send it with a letter of his writing

(17:36):
to a merchant of his acquaintance at the place, and
then proposed my staying with him till an account came
of the return. Never was anything more honorable than the
proceedings upon this procuration. For in less than seven months
I received a large packet from the survivors of my trustees,

(17:59):
the merchants for whose account I went to see, in
which were the following particular papers and letters enclosed. First,
there was the account current of the produce of my
farm or plantation from the year when their fathers had
balanced with my old Portugal captain, being six years, the

(18:23):
balance appeared to be one thousand, one hundred and seventy
four moidores in my favor. Secondly, there was the account
of four years more while they kept the effects in
their hands before the government claimed the administration as being
the effects of a person not to be found, which

(18:45):
they called civil death, and the balance of this the
value of the plantation increasing amounted to nineteen thousand, four
hundred and forty six crusadoutsch being about three thousand, two
hundred and forty moidores. Thirdly, there was the prior of

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Saint Augustine's account, who had received the profits for above
fourteen years, but not being able to account for what
was disposed of by the hospital, very honestly declared he
had eight hundred and seventy two moidores not distributed, which
he acknowledged to my account. As to the King's part,

(19:32):
they refunded nothing. There was a letter of my partners
congratulating me very affectionately upon my being alive, giving me
an account how the estate was improved and what it
produced a year, with the particulars of the number of
squares or acres that it contained. How planted, how many

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slaves there were upon it, and making two and twenty
cross for blessings, told me that he had said so
many ave marias to thank the blessed Virgin that I
was alive, inviting me very passionately to come over and
take possession of my own, and in the meantime to
give him orders to whom he should deliver my effects

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if I did not come myself, concluding with a hearty
tender of his friendship and that of his family, and
sent me as a present seven fine leopard skins, which
he had, it seems, received from Africa by some other
ship that he had sent thither, and which it seems

(20:41):
had made a better voyage than I. He sent me
also five chests of excellent sweetmeats, and a hundred pieces
of gold uncoined, not quite so large as moidores by
the same fleet. My two merchant trustees shipped me one
one thousand, two hundred chests of sugar, eight hundred rolls

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of tobacco, and the rest of the whole count in gold.
I might well say now, and indeed, that the latter
end of job was better than the beginning. It is
impossible to impress the flutterings of my heart when I

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found all my wealth about me. For as the brazil
ships come all in fleets, the same ships which brought
my letters brought my goods, and the effects were safe
in the river before the letters came to my hand.
In a word, I turned pale and grew sick, and

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had not the old man run and fetched me a
cordial I believe the sudden surprise of joy had overset nature,
and I had died upon the sea. Nay, after that,
I continued very ill, and was so for some hours
till a physician being sent for, and something of the

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real cause of my illness being known. He ordered me
to be let blood, after which I had relief and
grew well. But I verily believe if I had not
been let and eased by event given in that manner
to the spirits, I should have died. I was now master,

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all of a sudden of about five thousand pounds sterling
in money, and had an estate, as I might well
call it in the Brazils above a thousand pounds a year,
as sure as an a state of lands in England.
And in a word, I was in a condition which

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I scarce knew how to understand or how to compose
myself for the enjoyment of it. The first thing I
did was to recompense my original benefactor, my good old captain,
who had been first charitable to me in my distress,

(23:18):
kind to me in my beginning, and honest to me
at the end. I showed him all that was sent
to me. I told him that next to the providence
of heaven, which disposed all things, it was owing to him,
and that it now lay on me to reward him,

(23:39):
which I would do a hundredfold. So I first returned
to him the hundred moidores I had received of him.
Then I sent for a notary and caused him to
draw up a general release or discharge from the four
hundred and seventy moidores which he had acknowledged. He owed
me in the fullest and firmest manner possible, after which

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I caused a procuration to be drawn, empowering him to
be the receiver of the annual profits of my plantation,
and appointing my partner to account with him and make
the returns by the usual fleets to him in my name,
and by a clause in the end made a grant

(24:27):
of one hundred moidores a year to him during his
life out of the effects, and fifty moidores a year
to his son after him for his life. And thus
I requited my old man. I had now to consider
which way to steer my course next, and what to

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do with the estate that providence had thus put into
my hands. And indeed I had more care upon my
head now than I had in my state of life
in the island, where I wanted nothing but what I had,
and had nothing but what I wanted. Whereas I had

(25:11):
now a great charge upon me, and my business was
how to secure it. I had not a cave now
to hide my money in, or a place where it
might lie without locker key, till it grew moldy and
tarnished before anybody would meddle with it. On the contrary,

(25:31):
I knew not where to put it or whom to
trust it with. My old patron, the Captain, indeed, was honest,
and that was the only refuge I had. In the
next place, my interest in the Brazil seemed to summon
me thither, But now I could not tell how to

(25:52):
think of going thither till I had settled my affairs,
and left my effects in some safe hands behind me.
At first I thought of my old friend, the widow,
who I knew was honest and would be just to me.
But then she was in years, and but poor and
for aught I knew might be in debt, so that

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in a word, I had no way but to go
back to England myself and take my effects with me.
It was some months, however, before I resolved upon this,
And therefore, as I had rewarded the old captain fully
and to his satisfaction, who had been my former benefactor,

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so I began to think of the poor widow, whose
husband had been my first benefactor, and she, while it
was in her power, my faithful steward and instructor. So
the first thing I did I got a merchant in
Lisbon to write to his correspondent in London, not only

(26:57):
to pay a bill, but to go find her her
out and carry her in money one hundred pounds from me,
and to talk with her and comfort her in her
poverty by telling her she should, if I lived, have
a further supply. At the same time, I sent my
two sisters in the country one hundred pounds each, they

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being though not in want, yet not in very good circumstances,
one having been married and left a widow, and the
other having a husband not so kind to her as
he should be. But among all my relations or acquaintances,
I could not yet pitch upon one to whom I

(27:41):
durst commit the gross of my stock, that I might
go away to the Brazils and leave things safe behind me.
And this greatly perplexed me. I had once a mind
to have gone to the Brazils and have settled myself there,
for I was, as it were, naturalized to the place.

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But I had some little scruple in my mind about religion,
which insensibly drew me back. However, it was not religion
that kept me from going there for the present. And
as I had made no scruple of being openly of
the religion of the country all the while I was
among them, so neither did I. Yet, only that now

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and then, having of late thought more of it than formerly,
when I began to think of living and dying among them,
I began to regret, having professed myself a papist, and
thought it might not be the best religion to die with.
But as I have said, this was not the main

(28:50):
thing that kept me from going to the Brazils, but
that I really did not know with whom to leave
my effects behind me. So I residevolved at last to
go to England, where if I arrived I concluded that
I should make some acquaintance or find some relations that
would be faithful to me. And accordingly I prepared to

(29:14):
go to England with all my wealth. In order to
prepare things for my going home. I first the brazil fleet,
being just gone away, resolved to give answers suitable to
the just and faithful account of things I had from thence,
And first to the Prior of Saint Augustine, I wrote

(29:37):
a letter full of thanks for his just dealings and
the offer of the eight hundred and seventy two moidores,
which were undisposed, of which I desired might be given
five hundred to the monaster in three hundred and seventy
two to the poor, as the Prior should direct. Desiring

(29:58):
the good padres prayers for me and the like, I
wrote next a letter of thanks to my two trustees,
with all the acknowledgment that so much justice and honesty
called for. As for sending them any present, they were
far above having any occasion of it. Lastly, I wrote

(30:21):
to my partner, acknowledging his industry in the improving the plantation,
and his integrity in increasing the stock of the works,
giving him instructions for his future government of my part
according to the powers I had left with my old patron,
to whom I desired him to send whatever became due

(30:43):
to me till he should hear from me more, particularly
assuring him that it was my intention not only to
come to him, but to settle myself there for the
remainder of my life. To this I added a very
handsome present of some Italian silks for his wife and

(31:04):
two daughters. For such the captain's son informed me he
had with two pieces of fine English broadcloth the best
I could find in Lisbon, five pieces of black bais,
and some Flanders lace of a good value. Having thus

(31:26):
settled my affairs, sold my cargo, and turned all my
effects into good bills of exchange. My next difficulty was
which way to go to England. I had been accustomed
enough to the sea, and yet I had a strange

(31:47):
aversion to go to England by the sea at that time,
and yet I could not give reason for it. Still
the difficulty increased upon me so much that though I
had once shipped my baggage in order to go, yet
I altered my mind, and that not once, but two

(32:08):
or three times. It is true I had been very
unfortunate by sea, and this might be one of the reasons.
But let no man slight the strong impulses of his
own thoughts in cases of such moment. Two of the
ships which I had singled out to go in, I

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mean more particularly singled out than any other, having put
my things on board one of them, and in the
other having agreed with captain. I say, two of these
ships miscarried. One was taken by the Algerins, and the
other was lost on the start near Torbay, and all

(32:52):
the people drowned except three, so that in either of
those vessels I had been made miserable. Having thus been
harassed in my thoughts, my old pilot, to whom I
communicated everything, pressed me earnestly not to go by sea,

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but either to go by land to the Groyne and
cross over by the Bay of Biscay to Rochelle, from
whence it was but an easy and safe journey by
land to Paris, and so to Calais and Dover, or
to go up to Madrid, and so all the way

(33:36):
by land through France. In a word, I was so
prepossessed against my going by sea at all, except from
Calais to Dover, that I resolved to travel all the
way by land, which, as I was not in haste
and did not value the charge, was by much the

(33:58):
pleasanter way. To make it more so, my old captain
brought an English gentleman, the son of a merchant in Lisbon,
who was willing to travel with me, after which we
picked up two more English merchants also, and two young
Portuguese gentlemen, the last going to Paris, only, so that

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in all there were six of us and five servants,
the two merchants and the two Portuguese, contenting themselves with
one servant between two. To save the charge, and as
for me, I got an English sailor to travel with
me as a servant, besides my man Friday, who was

(34:41):
too much a stranger to be capable of supplying the
place of a servant on the road. In this manner
I set out from Lisbon, and our company, being very
well mounted and armed, we made a little troop whereof
they did me the honor to call me captain as

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well because I was the oldest man, as because I
had two servants, and indeed was the origin of the
whole journey. As I have troubled you with none of
my sea journals, so I shall trouble you now with
none of my land journals. But some adventures that happened
to us in this tedious and difficult journey, I must

(35:25):
not omit. When we came to Madrid, we being all
of us strangers to Spain, were willing to stay some
time to see the court of Spain and what was
worth observing. But it being the latter part of the summer,
we hastened away and set out from Madrid about the

(35:48):
middle of October. But when we came to the edge
of Navarre, we were alarmed at several towns on the way,
with an account that so much snow was falling on
the French side of the mountains that several travelers were
obliged to come back to Pompiluna, after having attempted at

(36:11):
an extreme hazard to pass on. When we came to
Pompiluna itself, we found it so indeed, and to me
that had been always used to a hot climate and
to countries where I could scarce bear any clothes on
the cold was insufferable, nor indeed was it more painful

(36:35):
than surprising to come but ten days before out of
Old Castile, where the weather was not only warm, but
very hot, and immediately to feel a wind from the
Perrhinian mountains so very keen, so severely cold as to
be intolerable, and to endanger benumbing and parry of our

(37:00):
fingers and toes. Poor Friday was really frightened when he
saw the mountains all covered with snow and felt cold
weather which he had never seen or felt before in
his life. To mend the manner, when we came to Pampeluna,
it continued snowing with so much violence and so long

(37:24):
that the people said winter was come before its time,
and the roads which were difficult before were now quite impassable.
For in a word, the snow lay in some places
too thick for us to travel, and being not hard frozen,
as is the case in the northern countries, there was

(37:46):
no going without being in danger of being buried alive
every step. We stayed no less than twenty days at Pompiluna,
when seeing the weather coming on, and no likely he
good of its being better, for it was the severest
winter all over Europe that had been known in the

(38:06):
memory of man. I proposed that we should go away
to Fontarabie and their take shipping for Bordeaux, which was
a very little voyage. But while I was considering this,
there came in four French gentlemen, who, having been stopped

(38:27):
on the French side of the passes as we were
on the Spanish, had found out a guide who, traversing
the country near the head of Landucu, had brought them
over the mountains by such ways that they were not
much incommoded by the snow, For where they met with
snow in inequantity, they said, it was frozen hard enough

(38:51):
to bear them and their horses. We sent for this guide,
who told us he would undertake to carry us the
same way with no hazard from the snow, provided we
were armed sufficiently to protect ourselves from wild beasts. For
he said, in these great snows it was frequent for

(39:12):
some wolves to show themselves at the foot of muntains,
being made ravenous for want of food, the ground being
covered with snow. We told him we were well enough
prepared for such creatures as they were. If he would
insure us from a kind of two legged wolves, which
we were told we were in most danger from, especially

(39:35):
on the French side of the mountains, he satisfied us
that there was no danger of that kind in the
way that we were to go. So we readily agreed
to follow him, as did also twelve other gentlemen with
their servants, some French, some Spanish, who, as I said,
had attempted to go and were obliged to come back again. Accordingly,

(40:00):
we set out from Pampeluna with our guide on the
fifteenth of November, and indeed I was surprised when, instead
of going forward, we came directly back, with us on
the same road that we came from Madrid, about twenty miles.
When having passed two rivers and come into the plain country,

(40:22):
we found ourselves in a warm climate again, where the
country was pleasant and no snow to be seen. But
on a sudden turning to his left, he approached the
mountains another way. And though it is true the hills
and precipices looked dreadful, yet he made so many tours

(40:44):
such meanders, and led us by such winding ways that
we insensibly passed the height of the mountains without being
much encumbered with the snow, and all on a sudden
he showed us the pleasant and fruit full provinces of
Langdoc and Gascony, all green and flourishing. Though at a

(41:06):
great distance, and we had some rough way to pass. Still,
we were a little uneasy, however, when we found it
snowed one whole day and a night, so fast that
we could not travel. But he bid us be easy,
we should soon be past at all. We found indeed

(41:28):
that we began to descend every day, and to come
more north than before, And so, depending upon our guide,
we went on. It was about two hours before night
when our guide, being something before us and not just
in sight, out rushed three monstrous wolves, and after them

(41:51):
a bear, from a hollow way adjoining to a great wood.
Two of the wolves made at the guide, and had
he been before us, he would have been devoured before
we could have helped him. One of them fastened upon
his horse, and the other attacked the man with such
violence that he had not time or presence of mind

(42:13):
enough to draw his pistol. But helloaed and cried out
to us most lustily. My man Friday, being next to me,
I bade him ride up and see what was the matter.
As soon as Friday came in sight of the man,
he halloed out as loud as the other, Oh Master,
Oh Master, but like a bold fellow, rode directly up

(42:38):
to the poor man, and with his pistol shot the
wolf in the head that attacked him. It was happy
for the poor man that it was my man Friday,
for having been used to such creatures in his country,
he had no fear upon him, but went close up
to him and shot him, whereas any the other of

(43:00):
us would have fired at a farther distance and have
perhaps either missed the wolf or endangered shooting the man.
But it was enough to have terrified a bolder man
than I, and indeed it alarmed all our company, when,
with the noise of Friday's pistol we heard on both

(43:22):
sides the most dismal howling of wolves, and the noise,
redoubled by the echo of the mountains, appeared to us
as if there had been a prodigious number of them,
And perhaps there was not such a few, as that
we had no cause of apprehension. However, as Friday had

(43:45):
killed this wolf. The other that had fastened upon the
horse left him immediately and fled without doing him any damage,
having happily fastened upon his head, where the bosses of
the bridle had stuck in his teeth. But the man
was most hurt, for the raging creature had bit him twice,

(44:08):
once in the arm and the other time a little
above his knee, and though he had made some defense,
he was just tumbling down by the disorder of his
horse when Friday came up and shot the wolf. It
is easy to suppose that at the noise of Friday's pistol,

(44:28):
we all mended our pace and rode up as fast
as the way, which was very difficult, would give us
leave to see what was the matter. As soon as
we came clear of the trees which blinded us before,
we saw clearly what was the case, and how Friday

(44:48):
had disengaged the poor guide, though we did not presently
discern what kind of creature it was he had killed.
End of Chapter nineteen